The SEC’s​​ apt slogan – “It just means more”– reflects the overflowing passion of its robust fan bases and the off-the-charts level of commitment of its football programs. But with the league’s beloved patriarch Mike Slive, it didn’t feel like it meshed. Not with his personality, which was gracious and dignified and understated. He was the quintessential Southern gentleman, only he was from upstate New York.

The college sports world was rocked Wednesday when it learned that Slive passed away at 77 after a lengthy illness. He had two bouts with prostate cancer.

It’s almost cliché to say that Slive was a visionary. He was a judge in the 1970s, an athletic director in the 1980s and a boss for a big chunk of the first 15 years of the 2000s.

Slive served as the SEC commissioner from 2002 until his retirement in 2015 as the league ascended to unprecedented levels of success and prosperity. The SEC didn’t just lap the other power conferences, it also became something of a sports phenomenon.

LSU won the league’s first national title one year into Slive’s reign, and before he stepped down, the SEC had rattled off seven more BCS championships. Slive orchestrated landmark TV deals, including the launch of the SEC Network, and led the conference through expansion, bringing in Texas A&M and Missouri. When he took over, the league was bringing in $96 million as a whole. Thirteen years later, when he stepped down, each school was raking in nearly half that amount.

He also polished up the image of the conference that had been rocked by one ugly scandal after another in the decades before he arrived. One of his proudest moments was championing diversity causes in the SEC as part of his leadership, including the hiring of Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State, the first African-American football coach in league history. Beyond that, he also helped catalyze the College Football Playoff.

Slive was one of the most powerful people in sports, yet he also might have been one of the nicest – a rare dual threat in that regard. Slive was approachable in a way unlike almost all of his peers. Most of Slive’s contemporaries come across as suits. When you dealt with them, it felt like speaking with the high school principal. Slive was more like the nicest dad of all your childhood buddies. Most of the power brokers in the sport struggle to connect with folks personally. Slive thrived doing that.

At first you’d be surprised that he knew your name. Five minutes later, you felt like he knew more about you than most of your relatives.

“I looked up to him so much as a young, first-time head coach in that league,” former Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin told me Wednesday. “He was masterful as a leader and as a leader of men. Lots of strong personalities in that room, and he was able to manage them all and was universally respected.”

“Commissioner Slive would sit and listen to our conversations and debate on an issue within the SEC AD meetings,” says Alabama AD Greg Byrne, who was a young athletic director at Mississippi State during Slive’s tenure. “As the debate continued, he would finally insert himself with a point or thought on the subject and get us all to often think about something in a manner that we either hadn’t thought about or in a manner that would get us all to agree on a subject. His ability to be collaborative yet authoritative was incredible.”

Tim Brando was host of the SEC on CBS from 1998 to 2013, but toward the end of that run he was concerned about his next step. “A year before the launch of the SEC Network, I drove over to Birmingham to see him,” Brando says. “I was thinking of my future long term. I wanted to be out of the studio and call games. I didn’t know if that was gonna be possible. Mike looked at me and said, ‘What are you doing here? Just take it easy. The only person that can get in your way is you.’ He just cut right to the chase.

“I had a 10-month period where I didn’t know what was gonna happen. He just kept calling and checking on me. He counseled me in a way that I would counsel kids coming out of college. I was 58 years old. He was just a very compassionate guy. But he was that way with everybody. That’s why you didn’t hear anything negative about Mike. He just had a great human quality. When I was hosting the show, I might say something that riled up the BCS. Mike didn’t mind at all. He’d say, ‘You’re wrong, but at least you’re passionate about it.’

“I think that’s what made him a great negotiator.”

When Bret Bielema arrived from the Big Ten as the new coach at Arkansas, he and Slive bonded over their love for cigars. They’d exchange them whenever they saw each other. It was a personal touch that connected with the new head coach.

In Bielema’s first season at Arkansas, he got into a squabble with Auburn and its coaching staff. “I apparently spoke out of turn,” Bielema recalled Wednesday. “I got a call from my AD (Jeff Long). ‘Bret, we’re not supposed to talk about the other SEC schools … ’ I knew I was out of turn. Like 20 minutes later, I get a call from Commish.

“ ‘Bret, you know I like you. So I don’t wanna fine you $20,000.’

“I said, ‘I really like you.’

“He just made his point and kinda gave me a stern warning that we’re gonna band together, not pull apart.”

Bielema, like everyone else who came into contact with Slive, bonded with what a sweet, decent man he was. Slive always had a way of making personal connections, whether it was trading cigars with a friend or sending texts after a big win or a heartbreaking loss.

Before taking over the SEC, Slive was the founding commissioner of two conferences (the Great Midwest Conference and Conference USA), and he founded a law firm that assisted NCAA institutions in compliance issues. His work ethic came from growing up in his dad’s butcher shop, where he once worked as a meat cutter. Slive became the first member of his family to graduate from college after he finished at Dartmouth in 1962. He also got advanced degrees from the University of Virginia School of Law and one year later from Georgetown Law.

Slive is survived by his wife of 49 years, Liz; their daughter Anna; son-in-law Judd; and his 6-year-old granddaughter Abigail.

(Photos by Dave Martin / Associated Press)

Bruce Feldman is the National College Football Insider for The Athletic. One of the sport’s leading voices, he also is a sideline reporter for FOX College Football. Bruce has covered college football nationally for more than 20 years and is the author of numerous books on the topic, including most recently "The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks".